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These assignments require you to apply research skills and information systems theory to a case study.
Read the “Assignments Brief” section first to get a general idea, then complete the tasks detailed for each assignment.
Assignments Brief
In Assignment 1, you will undertake a literature search to gather appropriate references to support your answers, arguments and recommendations for the Case Study Questions. You must submit your proposed list of references in the prescribed report format.
Note that Assignment 1 is NOT a formal literature review, that is, you are not describing, summarising, evaluating, or clarifying the literature on the topic. You are only justifying the use of individual references for Assignment 2.
Assignment 1 will be assessed on the appropriateness of your choice of references and sources.
In Assignment 2, you will write a non-technical report in which you provide answers to the Case Study Questions in detail. You would utilise the references chosen previously, adjusted appropriately according to assessment feedback if applicable. You must submit your report in the prescribed format.
Assignment 2 will be assessed according to criteria listed in the downloadable marking criteria sheet.
The detailed assignment requirements (presentation, formatting etc) follow directly on from the Case, and the Case Study Questions.
Correct Referencing
For both assignments, use HARVARD referencing style for in-text referencing and for the References List.
Copy detection/plagiarism process
On submission, assignments are scanned by the copy detection software, Turnitin. Your assignment is checked against all submitted assignments from current and previous terms for this course and other courses as well. Any copying found in the process of running this software may be investigated. On investigation, marks can be deducted for any part of the work that is categorised as plagiarism, and further, any student identified in the copy detection process may be subject to penalties up to and including failing the course or expulsion from the University.
The Case: ‘FixItNow’
‘FixItNow’ (FIN) is a SME owned and run by Adam Smith and his younger brothers Ian and Paul, in the regional town of Shockhampton 210 kilometres away from the state capital city. FIN is a supplier for building, plumbing and gardening businesses and home clients.
Ten years ago, when Adam, Ian and Paul were working for a local hardware store, they decided to start their own business to take advantage of a booming home market. Adam was working in building, Ian was in plumbing, and Paul was in gardening section. The three opened a store for building, plumbing and gardening supplies. Initially it was a bit slow but soon the business started to grow as the brothers used their local contacts to get more orders. Being a fair business and with competitive prices, FIN soon became a household name.
Adam, Ian and Paul did not have any formal qualifications so to help with office and admin work they hired Gillian Cole, a former employee of their previous workplace, as office manager and left things to her whichever way she would like to organise them. Now, Gillian also did not have any formal education in Accounting or Business but her 20 years experience from the previous job in a hardware store gave her the essentials skills required to run a small business.
FIN had simple operations. Individual customers shopped at the shop front and business clients placed their orders via telephone or fax to the FIN office. EFTPOS facility was available to everyone, with cheque payments available to business clients only. Deliveries were available at extra charge.
Gillian did everything manually – at first, being a small business with a low number of clients it was easy to manage manually but soon she realised that the accumulating information about customers, suppliers, products plus bookkeeping was becoming difficult to manage. Gillian was the only one in the office, on the floor there were the three brothers plus 10 fulltime and a similar number of casual staff. There were two mobile salespeople always in the field. All in all, payroll included around 26 staff.
With written orders and invoices, manual bookkeeping became a nightmare. Managing the supplies inventory and keeping track of what is in store and what was on order and scheduled deliveries was becoming very difficult. Often customer orders were not delivered on time, as supplies were not ordered in the right quantities from the suppliers. Scheduling casual staff and managing their manual claim forms posed quite a challenge. The customers’ details were in a manual register but there was a big question mark on currency of the information.
Adam hired a part time person to help Gillian with the administration, but this did not solve the problems. So a personal computer with some essential business and Accounting software was purchased to transfer all of the manual records and information to electronic files including products, customers, suppliers and Accounting including payroll. Using a computer proved helpful and they started to input information about customers, suppliers, employees, jobs, schedules, payroll, pricing information, other overheads, invoices, and other financial figures.
The three owners worked very hard and after ten years, the business had grown significantly. They now had a total of 57 employees including 3 more mobile sales people. Gillian has 3 staff in the office now to help her with the office work. But now another challenge emerged. Having some information on the only PC in the office and most of the remaining information manually still stored in the filing cabinets, created certain problems. For instance, it became difficult to make decisions about some business matters as relevant information might or might not be complete, correct, and/or current. Therefore, more time was required to validate and verify data between the computer and the filing cabinets.
With their problems in managing the business, profits began to dive. Adam called a business meeting to try to work out the problems of recent months. The following issues emerged:
1) Accounts payable and receivable suffered due to incorrect invoicing.
2) Inventory problems — no correct information about what was available, what was on order, delivery times from suppliers, what has been ordered by business clients and delivery schedules, back orders etc.
3) Supplies — not ordered in a timely manner, supplies ordered which were not in demand, or were ordered in more than required quantities.
4) Customers and business clients had problems tracking their orders.
5) Communications — Incorrect contact details meant that clients could not contact FIN staff. Invoices were often sent to wrong addresses. Mobile salespeople did not have up to date information about products, available inventory or delivery lead times to provide to the prospective clients.
6) At the shop front, employees had problems accessing policies and other work related information to complete their tasks. Employees also found it difficult to communicate with each other as most of the time staff were not at their stations for a variety of reasons.
7) Lastly, casual staff often received incorrect pay or pay went into the wrong bank account due to incorrect and delayed processing of their claim forms and timesheets.
Adam, Ian, Paul and Gillian realised they had significant problems. Gillian knew that computers and IT could help in managing the business, including a mobile sales force, and play a role in acquiring new business and competing with their market rivals. A decision was made to introduce IT in the business and use it to support business operations, information management, decision making, and making strategic plans. There was also an intention to create an online presence to provide a better service to their customers and suppliers.
To initiate this project, Adam contracted you, an IT consultant, to prepare a report that addresses the following concerns of management.
Case Study Questions
1. Identify the problems at FIN and construct a list of what needs to change in business terms.
2. To help FIN management, define what information systems are and briefly explain the importance of information systems for the business. You may like to include the roles information systems play to explain the importance.
3. What are the information requirements of FIN? How does this information support the strategies for competitive advantages? (hint: refer to Porter’s five forces). What business processes should FIN consider computerising? Why?
4. Which information system(s) can help FIN in managing the problems and fulfilling the business requirements? How will they help?
5. How will the business decision making at FIN be supported by the information systems that you are suggesting?
6. Explain how FIN may utilise IS/IT to collaborate and communicate with the key stakeholders. Explain the strategic use of computer networks (intranets and extranets) and the Internet to serve their needs.
7. For customers, employees, and FIN, what are some of the security and ethical issues that may arise with the introduction of information systems and online presence? What can be done to resolve such issues?
8. FIN may have some reservations introducing IT in their business environment. How should FIN manage the organisational change during the implementation Of the information system and online presence?
Assignments 1 and 2 are presented together as they are closely related.
FOR ASSIGNMENT 1: (maximum 1500 words)
FOR ASSIGNMENT 2: (maximum 3500 words)
These assignments require you to apply research skills and information systems theory to a case study.
Read the “Assignments Brief” section first to get a general idea, then complete the tasks detailed for each assignment.
Assignments Brief
In Assignment 1, you will undertake a literature search to gather appropriate references to support your answers, arguments and recommendations for the Case Study Questions. You must submit your proposed list of references in the prescribed report format.
Note that Assignment 1 is NOT a formal literature review, that is, you are not describing, summarising, evaluating, or clarifying the literature on the topic. You are only justifying the use of individual references for Assignment 2.
Assignment 1 will be assessed on the appropriateness of your choice of references and sources.
In Assignment 2, you will write a non-technical report in which you provide answers to the Case Study Questions in detail. You would utilise the references chosen previously, adjusted appropriately according to assessment feedback if applicable. You must submit your report in the prescribed format.
Assignment 2 will be assessed according to criteria listed in the downloadable marking criteria sheet.
The detailed assignment requirements (presentation, formatting etc) follow directly on from the Case, and the Case Study Questions.
Correct Referencing
For both assignments, use HARVARD referencing style for in-text referencing and for the References List.
Copy detection/plagiarism process
On submission, assignments are scanned by the copy detection software, Turnitin. Your assignment is checked against all submitted assignments from current and previous terms for this course and other courses as well. Any copying found in the process of running this software may be investigated. On investigation, marks can be deducted for any part of the work that is categorised as plagiarism, and further, any student identified in the copy detection process may be subject to penalties up to and including failing the course or expulsion from the University.
The Case: ‘FixItNow’
‘FixItNow’ (FIN) is a SME owned and run by Adam Smith and his younger brothers Ian and Paul, in the regional town of Shockhampton 210 kilometres away from the state capital city. FIN is a supplier for building, plumbing and gardening businesses and home clients.
Ten years ago, when Adam, Ian and Paul were working for a local hardware store, they decided to start their own business to take advantage of a booming home market. Adam was working in building, Ian was in plumbing, and Paul was in gardening section. The three opened a store for building, plumbing and gardening supplies. Initially it was a bit slow but soon the business started to grow as the brothers used their local contacts to get more orders. Being a fair business and with competitive prices, FIN soon became a household name.
Adam, Ian and Paul did not have any formal qualifications so to help with office and admin work they hired Gillian Cole, a former employee of their previous workplace, as office manager and left things to her whichever way she would like to organise them. Now, Gillian also did not have any formal education in Accounting or Business but her 20 years experience from the previous job in a hardware store gave her the essentials skills required to run a small business.
FIN had simple operations. Individual customers shopped at the shop front and business clients placed their orders via telephone or fax to the FIN office. EFTPOS facility was available to everyone, with cheque payments available to business clients only. Deliveries were available at extra charge.
Gillian did everything manually – at first, being a small business with a low number of clients it was easy to manage manually but soon she realised that the accumulating information about customers, suppliers, products plus bookkeeping was becoming difficult to manage. Gillian was the only one in the office, on the floor there were the three brothers plus 10 fulltime and a similar number of casual staff. There were two mobile salespeople always in the field. All in all, payroll included around 26 staff.
With written orders and invoices, manual bookkeeping became a nightmare. Managing the supplies inventory and keeping track of what is in store and what was on order and scheduled deliveries was becoming very difficult. Often customer orders were not delivered on time, as supplies were not ordered in the right quantities from the suppliers. Scheduling casual staff and managing their manual claim forms posed quite a challenge. The customers’ details were in a manual register but there was a big question mark on currency of the information.
Adam hired a part time person to help Gillian with the administration, but this did not solve the problems. So a personal computer with some essential business and Accounting software was purchased to transfer all of the manual records and information to electronic files including products, customers, suppliers and Accounting including payroll. Using a computer proved helpful and they started to input information about customers, suppliers, employees, jobs, schedules, payroll, pricing information, other overheads, invoices, and other financial figures.
The three owners worked very hard and after ten years, the business had grown significantly. They now had a total of 57 employees including 3 more mobile sales people. Gillian has 3 staff in the office now to help her with the office work. But now another challenge emerged. Having some information on the only PC in the office and most of the remaining information manually still stored in the filing cabinets, created certain problems. For instance, it became difficult to make decisions about some business matters as relevant information might or might not be complete, correct, and/or current. Therefore, more time was required to validate and verify data between the computer and the filing cabinets.
With their problems in managing the business, profits began to dive. Adam called a business meeting to try to work out the problems of recent months. The following issues emerged:
1) Accounts payable and receivable suffered due to incorrect invoicing.
2) Inventory problems — no correct information about what was available, what was on order, delivery times from suppliers, what has been ordered by business clients and delivery schedules, back orders etc.
3) Supplies — not ordered in a timely manner, supplies ordered which were not in demand, or were ordered in more than required quantities.
4) Customers and business clients had problems tracking their orders.
5) Communications — Incorrect contact details meant that clients could not contact FIN staff. Invoices were often sent to wrong addresses. Mobile salespeople did not have up to date information about products, available inventory or delivery lead times to provide to the prospective clients.
6) At the shop front, employees had problems accessing policies and other work related information to complete their tasks. Employees also found it difficult to communicate with each other as most of the time staff were not at their stations for a variety of reasons.
7) Lastly, casual staff often received incorrect pay or pay went into the wrong bank account due to incorrect and delayed processing of their claim forms and timesheets.
Adam, Ian, Paul and Gillian realised they had significant problems. Gillian knew that computers and IT could help in managing the business, including a mobile sales force, and play a role in acquiring new business and competing with their market rivals. A decision was made to introduce IT in the business and use it to support business operations, information management, decision making, and making strategic plans. There was also an intention to create an online presence to provide a better service to their customers and suppliers.
To initiate this project, Adam contracted you, an IT consultant, to prepare a report that addresses the following concerns of management.
Case Study Questions
1. Identify the problems at FIN and construct a list of what needs to change in business terms.
2. To help FIN management, define what information systems are and briefly explain the importance of information systems for the business. You may like to include the roles information systems play to explain the importance.
3. What are the information requirements of FIN? How does this information support the strategies for competitive advantages? (hint: refer to Porter’s five forces). What business processes should FIN consider computerising? Why?
4. Which information system(s) can help FIN in managing the problems and fulfilling the business requirements? How will they help?
5. How will the business decision making at FIN be supported by the information systems that you are suggesting?
6. Explain how FIN may utilise IS/IT to collaborate and communicate with the key stakeholders. Explain the strategic use of computer networks (intranets and extranets) and the Internet to serve their needs.
7. For customers, employees, and FIN, what are some of the security and ethical issues that may arise with the introduction of information systems and online presence? What can be done to resolve such issues?
8. FIN may have some reservations introducing IT in their business environment. How should FIN manage the organisational change during the implementation Of the information system and online presence?
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